The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 defines a ‘trip hazard’ as any vertical change of over ¼ inch or more at any joint or crack. Since the ADA demands strict compliance, trip hazards represent a legal liability to businesses. Cities, school districts, hospitals, churches, shopping malls, universities, apartment complexes, and other large building owners have good reason to be extremely concerned with trip hazards, the risk of injury to pedestrians and the attendant liability exposure.
One prior method to remove trip hazards is replacement. The affected concrete is demolished, removed, and replaced with a level surface. Unfortunately, such approach is time-consuming, expensive and disruptive. The walkway is rendered unusable for considerable time. The cost of replacement greatly exceeds the cost of repair. In many cases, replacement yields considerable waste, as the concrete which was otherwise intact is demolished and discarded.
Other past efforts to remove trip hazards entail manually grinding or cutting the protruding trip hazard. While such efforts may be effective for removing a trip hazard, they tend to be time-consuming and inefficient, extremely imprecise, scattering considerable concrete dust, and resulting in uneven surfaces.
What is needed is a controlled saw-cutting system and methodology that completely and cleanly removes trip hazards from sidewalks and similar walkways, from edge to edge, providing a safe walkway and virtually eliminating claims that result from trips and falls on uneven sidewalk.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems and solving one or more of the needs as set forth above.